As an individual who grew up in a bilingual household speaking Urdu and English, I have learned to value language learning as an opportunity to better communicate with other communities and subsequently learn about them. I have had the opportunity to visit relatives in Pakistan multiple times and have appreciated the ability to communicate with family members who do not know English well, including my grandparents.

After learning French in middle school and high school, I also had a brief opportunity to assist my father on a medical mission in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. During that trip, I realized just how valuable even my limited French skills were. Though most of the patients at the walk-in clinics spoke Creole, I was still able to roughly communicate with them in French to obtain patient height/weight measurements and/or provide instructions for drug regimens.

As a potential medical professional in the future, I hope to use my language skills to better communicate with patients in the U.S. and internationally if I am able to do international medical work in the future. Language barriers serve as barriers to health access and cultural understanding. Thus, having an awareness of other languages and understanding the necessity to advocate for translation as necessary is critical for individuals working in the global health field in my view. Through my volunteer work with FORGE, I have seen firsthand the struggles that refugees face due to language barriers in the U.S. By learning Arabic, I hope to help immigrants and refugees both domestically and internationally if possible better navigate health care systems.